Travel Blog

Wild and beautiful Plett

One of the things I love about travelling is getting to see all kinds of interesting and stunning landscapes. As for the landscape in Plett, well, if you come here be prepared to say ‘Wow’ a whole lot!

First Mirjam and Leslie from Albergo for Backpackers took me to see Central Beach, one of the town’s awesome stretches of sand. The waves were pretty wild today and we watched one lone wannabe surfer try to tackle them without seemingly having a clue what he was doing. About four lifeguards were looking on just in case, which was definitely a good thing.

Ocean Blue Adventures was our next stop and there we organised for me to take the trip on Sunday morning at 9.30am. Note to self: remember to take sea sickness pill tomorrow night. I’m really, really looking forward to that trip. Not only is this area known as a great place to see dolphins and (in season) whales, it’s also home to a colony of seals and occasionally some hammerhead sharks!

This will be my first chance to encounter some of South Africa’s marine life. I’m really fascinated by sea life. My friends Becca, Vicki and Celine have been known to refer to me as Troy because of this. Ahem.

After that came probably my favourite parts of the afternoon as we visited two different but equally amazing sites in Plett. First up was Robberg Nature Reserve up on the peninsula. Close to the blue flag Robberg Beach, this peninsula is home to a plethora of things to do including the Nelson Bay cave, two hiking trails and awesome views. And when I say awesome, I really mean it.

From one side of the reserve, you look down at the wild side, where the waves are very impressive and the wind makes it hard to take video (but I managed okay!). One the other side, things are a little calmer with the entirety of Plett spread out along the coast below you. You can also see the shadow of a boat wreck and plenty of other shadows that were probably rocks but my brain was making into ‘school of fish!’ and so on.

After that I thought I’d been as wowed as much as I could be in one afternoon but then we drove on out to Harkerville (stopping by Starling Backpackers to say hello on the way) which is another nature reserve about 15 minutes from town. Home to indigenous forest (and, Leslie tells me, plenty of animals including baboons), Harkerville is known as the place to go around here for mountain biking. You can rent bikes here and if you’ve got a car you can also drive all the way through to the lookout points. That’s where I had another ‘Wow’ moment.

There’s something incredibly humbling about being somewhere like the Kranshoek Viewpoint in Harkerville. From the sound of the waves pounding against the rocks to the sight of winding trails leading all the way down to the patches of beach, it’s hard to pick one thing to focus on and my awed eyes kept jumping around from one thing to another, stopping from time to time to actually focus and take a picture like the one you see here.

It was a bit overcast in Plett this afternoon but I didn’t mind in the slightest as clouds like that usually bring the kind of rain this area badly needs. Not only is the drought bad but there have been a lot of fires too. Unfortunately, that rain never materialised but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

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In our hostelworld.com travel blog we bring you all the latest company news and information on new additions to the site including podcasts, videos and more. You'll also get inside information on a variety of destinations across the globe as they're visited by our travel editor and writers.